SHIFTING THE FOCUS FROM PURSUING JUSTICE TO PREVENTING MANIFEST INJUSTICES

Most of the time people look to the law for justice. The demand for justice is made in the form of a legal or moral claim. A person accused of a crime claims the right to fair trial or procedural justice. People’s demand for punishment of a criminal act is a demand for justice. A citizen’s claim to equality before the law is a claim of justice. Justice is not exclusively a jurist’s concern. It is at the center of moral and social philosophy. Justice has been termed as the highest virtue. It has also been equated with fairness. The concept of just entitlement is also central to the theme of justice. A person who is fair, generous and helpful engages in the virtue of beneficence. Sympathy is the origin of the ideas of beneficence and of justice. The most recent idea of justice puts emphasis on the role of public reason in establishing what can make societies less unjust. The aim of this paper is to evaluate various paradigms of the concept of justice and to highlight how the ideal of justice may be achieved by moving on the path to prevent prevalent injustices in varied forms in our societies.